President Biden signs order to increase federal food benefits, among executive actions to stabilize
President Biden on Friday signed a significant increase in federal food assistance for millions of hungry families and other executive actions intended to stabilize the deterioration of the economy, weighed down by the raging coronavirus pandemic.
At a ceremony signing at the White House, Biden touted his $1.9 trillion economic relief measure being debated in Congress, highlighting surprise support from former senior Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett.
Biden then signed two executive orders, one including a bevy of measures designed to support the economy and another aimed at reinstating protections for the federal workforce.
“The bottom line is this: We’re in a national emergency. We need to act like we’re in a national emergency. So we have to move, with everything we’ve got,” Biden said. “Families are going hungry. People are at risk of being evicted. We need to act."...
In Friday’s executive order, Biden asked the Department of Agriculture to allow states to increase Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits — commonly known as food stamps — and to increase by 15 percent benefits awarded through a school meals program for low-income students started during the pandemic, according to Biden administration officials. That could give a family of three children more than $100 in extra benefits every two months, officials said.
A separate unilateral move aims to help get previously approved stimulus checks into the hands of Americans who haven’t received them yet. And another asks the Labor Department to make clear that workers who refuse to return to working conditions that could expose them to the coronavirus should be eligible for unemployment insurance. Biden is also starting the process to issue an order requiring federal contractors to pay their employees a $15-an-hour minimum wage.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/01/22/biden-increase-food-stamps/